Car Dealer Holley Charged With Bilking Customers

Thursday

Prominent car dealer and philanthropist Michael Holley was arrested Thursday morning and charged with bilking $440,000 from customers by not paying off their trade-in vehicles. Document: Michael Holley Arrest Affidavit

BARTOW | Prominent car dealer and philanthropist Michael Holley has this year gone from a man who had it all to a criminal defendant facing years in prison.

Holley, 47, was arrested Thursday morning by investigators from the State Attorney's Office. He was charged with bilking $440,000 from customers by not paying off their trade-in vehicles.

Holley was charged with 26 counts of grand theft, 10 counts of unlawful subleasing of a motor vehicle, title violations and scheming to defraud at his business, the Chevrolet and Kia dealerships on Bartow Road in Lakeland. As of 11 p.m. Thursday, he was still being held in the Polk County Jail on $487,500 bail.

Holley is also accused of taking $555,000 from business accounts and depositing it into his personal account between July and September, according to a 13-page State Attorney's Office complaint affidavit. Prosecutors say customers were bilked from Aug. 25 to Sept. 29.

State Attorney Jerry Hill said Thursday that investigators have subpoenaed Holley's personal bank records. The report says he transferred $156,449 to various estate holding companies, but it's unknown where that money is now.

Hill said investigators are unsure what Holley's motivation was for not paying off trade-in vehicles. Business may have been tough, Hill said, "but there's no excuse for breaking the law and hurting other people in the process."

Holley has done a lot of good for Polk County, Hill said, so "this saddens me."

Hill said he wished he could guarantee that his office could get people their money back, but said prosecutors can only try, and that they will.

crack legal team

Holley has hired high-profile lawyers John Liguori and Richard Mars, both of Bartow.

Liguori said Holley already has repaid some of the customers and continued to work with the State Attorney's Office on resolving his outstanding claims before the arrest.

He said Holley has an agreement to sell his dealership to a Michigan dealer and use some of that money to pay the customers.

Liguori said there is a bail hearing set for 1 p.m. today, and he may ask for a lower bail for Holley. He said he has received phone calls from six "prominent businesspeople" wanting to help Holley post bail.

"Michael has been overly cooperative and is resolving these claims," Liguori said. "As of last week there was a letter of intent submitted to sell" the dealership.

The affidavit said Holley was in sole control of the dealership's finances. "He had his fingers on all the buttons," Hill said.

"In conducting an interview with Pat Dees, controller for the Holley Dealerships, she stated that Michael Holley was in control of the day-to-day business," the affidavit written by investigator David Lyon said. "She stated that every morning, Holley would verify the bank records and instruct her which liens to pay and which not to pay.

"All of this was occurring with Holley's knowledge yet he continued to run the business and take vehicles in on trade knowing he could not satisfy the liens," the affidavit said.

Holley's general manager, Craig Hite, told investigators that only Holley controlled the money.

"He stated that all Holley had to do was tell him as the general manager not to take any more trades in on deals and they would have stopped," the report said. "He stated that this did not have to continue on once the problem was noticed."

Thirty-five customers who owned a total of 26 cars were listed in the complaint. Some are married couples.

Over the summer, Ron Weeks Jr., 43, traded in a 2006 Colorado pickup for a 2008 Silverado.

Weeks, of Fort Meade, said Holley never paid for the Colorado.

"I had excellent credit to start with," Weeks said. "When he didn't pay off that loan, it messed me up."

An employee at Mosaic, Weeks said he confronted Holley, who took the blame and assured him he would write his creditor, Huntington Bank. Weeks said Holley never wrote a letter.

Weeks said the 2006 truck remains unpaid.

"He stuck a lot of people," Weeks said. "The only thing I want is for him to pay."

Rochelle Robbins, 41, of Auburndale, with her husband, Timothy, continues to pay for a 2004 Kia Sorrento that she traded for a 2008 Kia Optima.

"I've been paying on two cars," Robbins said.

Holley deserves to be in jail, Robbins said, but she said she felt bad for him because a lot of his woes are likely because of the economy.

Big Businessman

Holley has built his image over the years as an extravagant businessman who runs with prominent people. A big supporter of the Republican Party, he threw fundraisers for U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam and for former Sen. Fred Thompson during his presidential campaign.

He supports local causes and has made the community room at his dealership available for use by many local groups.

Holley built the two-story Chevrolet dealership at a cost of $7 million and opened the business in September 2005, according to a previous Ledger interview. He became a partner in the Chevrolet dealership - formerly known as T. Thomas Chevrolet - in 1993 before becoming full owner three years later.

The Panama City native and Lakeland resident also operates a Kia franchise and used-car dealership at the Chevrolet site. In 2005, he projected annual sales of $100 million for his four area dealerships. At its height, Holley employed 150 people at his dealerships, according to a former employee.

hard times

One clue that Holley's businesses are facing tough times is that he is being sued by an Orlando businessman who claims he is owed $29,425. The suit claims Holley owes that amount in rent for the property on North Massachusetts Avenue where Holley once had his Kia dealership.

Further evidence of a business in trouble: Holley's dealerships are $16,000 behind on paying their Lakeland Electric bills.

On Thursday, clerks could identify only one civil lawsuit filed against Holley, accusing him of not satisfying the $21,877 lien on a trade-in car.

Tough times hit Holley within the past year. He put his Collins Lane home on the market for $2.35 million, and also has a Holmes Beach residence listed for sale at $895,000. The price on the Collins Lane home has dropped to $1.9 million.

Liguori said Holley's financial challenges are a direct result of the national trend of struggling car dealerships. He said 57 dealerships in the Southeast have closed since June.

Polk County has seen two notable legal cases involving auto dealers in recent years.

In 2003, the owners of the now-defunct Towerview Motors dealership in Lake Wales were sentenced to prison for defrauding customers and the government out of millions of dollars. Prosecutors said Towerview resold customers' trade-in vehicles without paying off their liens and secured loans on bogus car sales.

In May, former Bartow dealer John Giovanetti was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for committing wire and bank fraud through his dealership. Holley acquired Giovanetti's Bartow dealership - formerly known as Big Oaks - in a bankruptcy auction three years ago.

[ John Chambliss can be reached at john.chambliss@theledger.com or 863-802-7588. Rick Rousos can be reached at rick.rousos@theledger.com or 863-802-7514.]

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